Hey guys, I currently work out at my university gym and since I graduated my membership will expire in 2012. Anyway the best next gym is $100 a month... For that much I would rather begin to build a home setup, figure it will run me about ~$1000 with a platform, cage, bar, and bumper plates...

Nice timing. Oddly enough I am building one very similar tonight when I get home from work. My measurements are all in metric of course. I've got 4 sheets of 2400x1200x15mm ply which I will lay two beside each other to make a 2400x2400 square and then glue the other two the other way to bind them and create a 30mm platform. From there I will glue my centre piece which is a 2400mmx1200mmx18mm piece of marine ply which should look the goods once it is varnished up. For the drop zone I found some 600x600x12.5mm fatigue rubber squares. Finding the rubber was easily the hardest part. i suggest you model the design around what rubber you can get. This is the make or break in my opinion! So four of these fit the 2400x600mm side runs perfectly. All that is needed is some ply to put under them to raise them to the 18mm height of the centre piece. The piece I got is 7mm so the mats will be 19.5mm high and the centre piece will be 18mm. Hopefully not too much of a noticieably difference. Once I'm done I'll post an entry with pictures and how my plan went. In the end my platform will be a 2400mm square with a 1200mm centre zone and two 600mm drop zones.

awesome yes post pictures please! If you could have the bar in it to (for size reference) would help as metric numbers mean nothing to me haha! I live in a farm area myself so I can get rubber horse matting pretty much anywhere and its cheap.

wow looks great so far! so that is a full size oly platform right? How heavy is it? I am more than likely going to move a few more times before I settle down so I was thinking of making it half length for that reason, also I have to move it around so I can park in the garage lol!

No idea how heavy! But pretty sure I wont be able to move it on my own! And yep it's full size, it's basically 8' x 8'. The centre panel is 8' long by 4' wide and the side panels are 8' long by 2' wide. Hope that helps! So I suppose you could halve the length and make it 8' wide and 4' long. That would probably work fine too! I can't wait to get it finished and start setting PB's!

I've been thinking of building something similar. At the moment I just have two sets of rubber matts each side of my rack, which is ok but not ideal.

I kept help but feel this is a silly question but is it a problem if the power rack sits on the platform? I a bit tight on space, can't have something that sticks out too much (or else the car won't get in!). I'd also like to have something either side of the rack, whether it be because I'm deadlifting within the rack or to take some of the impact, incase I accidentally drop a plate.

My rack as pictured in that link will have the front two feet on the platform and the rear two on the ground behind. I'm limited for space too. I can't see why it would be a problem. I don't know for sure anyway until later in the week when I set it up. I'm also planning on putting my old mats around the platform for the same reason, in case I drop a plate etc. Once I've got my gym all back together I'll put up some more pics so you can see how I end up configuring it. I'm sort of working it out as I go to be honest!

I got the rubber from Bunnings which is a big hardware store here. Similar to Lowes I believe. The mats aren't floor mats which is why they were so hard to find in this size. They are actually called anti-vibration mats and are designed to go under your washing machine or dryer or between a front load washer and dryer so they don't vibrate. Only found them by chance, but they are damn perfect! And were much cheaper than any other rubber I had seen!

Thanks Adam! I'm in NZ and we have Bunnings over here. I was crossing my fingers you'd say you got them there!

This is my gym.

The picture was taken when the car wasn't in the garage (I've got about 1-1.5 meters between rack and the car though when I train, I move the car out just to be safe). So I was thinking of building something either half the size or building it so that the rack sits on top the plaform.

In my case, is it ok to have the rack sit on the platform or is the rack never meant to be on the platform?

Awesome! Well I got everything from Bunnings, so you should be able to replicate the whole job! I think it would be fine for the rack to sit on the platform, or like mine will be half on, half off. It means the rack will be on a slight angle, but that should make too much of a difference I wouldn't think! Would be keen to see how you get on if you decide to proceed! You could always just go with a half platform. Would be cheaper and would sit nicely in front of your rack. You would just half all of the materials! And those mats are a steal get into Bunnings and get some!

If you already have plates, don't replace them all with bumpers. All you need are 4-6 x 20kg bumper plates. These will be a bigger diameter than your others and so you will be able to load every increment you need combining the bumper and regular plates. I have 6 x 20kg bumpers and it's all I've ever needed. I have another 10 hammertone 20kg and an assortment of smaller hammertone plates and it gets the job done. With three 20kg bumpers aside that is enough to typically handle the demands of being dropped. This has worked well for me anyway. Buying all those small bumpers just seems a waste of cash to me.

Awesome! Well I got everything from Bunnings, so you should be able to replicate the whole job! I think it would be fine for the rack to sit on the platform, or like mine will be half on, half off. It means the rack will be on a slight angle, but that should make too much of a difference I wouldn't think! Would be keen to see how you get on if you decide to proceed! You could always just go with a half platform. Would be cheaper and would sit nicely in front of your rack. You would just half all of the materials! And those mats are a steal get into Bunnings and get some!

Cheers mate! I'm really happy with the setup so far. With the car out of the garage, I've got a big space to myself when I train. Only downside is not enough ceiling space for pressing.

I think I'll end up building the full size one and put my rack on top. The rubber matts I have are ok but, when I deadlift, it means the bar is about 2 cms off the floor and, more importantly, the little buggers aren't stuck to the floor so they can move around.

wow looks great so far! so that is a full size oly platform right? How heavy is it? I am more than likely going to move a few more times before I settle down so I was thinking of making it half length for that reason, also I have to move it around so I can park in the garage lol!

Based on the materials used, I'd say that thing probably weighs north of 250lbs. (114 kg.) A half size would obviously be half that.

No idea how heavy! But pretty sure I wont be able to move it on my own!

Indeed, the size alone would make it difficult to manage. That fact that it's so heavy definitely compounds the problem. You could likely drag it by yourself if you're not moving it far. Note to anyone attempting this, consider building where you want it so you don't have to move it. I believe Rip's design is three layers thick so that would be even heavier. A full size platform will definitely not be convenient to move around, much less move to another building.